Many people wrongly think that vajrayana samaya/damtsig (commitment) means you cannot ask any questions to a teacher or their community. Especially if those questions are seeking clarity on something which seems unethical, corrupt, dishonest, abusive and harmful. Yet bodhisattvas in training also have a vow to protect beings and the teachings from harm.
As Garchen Rinpoche taught many times, the root of all the Buddhist vows and samaya is love and compassion, Ahimsa. As long as that is not abandoned when asking these “uncomfortable” questions then samaya is not broken. If people find the questions offensive or rude just because they are asking about a situation they want to hide or cover up, that is not broken samaya either. We need to use discerning wisdom in out communities to weed out corruption and nip it in the bud quickly before the whole community become rotten and like a cult.
The Buddha and the Nalanda tradition always encouraged open and honest debate not just about philosophy of emptiness but about ethics and non virtue. We have to be careful that samaya is not used as a weapon to silence and humiliate people whose only “crime” was to ask questions and seek clarity and speak truth to power where there is corruption and abuse.
Pure perception does not mean becoming totally unwise and lacking and discernment and enabling and excusing clear contraventions of Buddhist Vinaya and general ethics. Buddha did not teach the ten non virtues for nothing or no one just so some “self proclaimed yogis” can act unethically and dishonestly and get away with it telling people to have “pure perception”. What about having pure perception of the person speaking out such things? Pure perception is not one way street only.
If monastics want to practice Vajrayana unions with secret ot actual consorts this is why it is better they just leave the monastic community and stop pretending to everyone they are monks. They may still be keeping all sets of vows if they are highly advanced practitioners but in terms of public perception of Buddhism and monastics alone, it is better these days not to try and combine the two. Why? Because it only leads to a lot of traumatised women and a degeneration of Buddha Dharma. Monks and nuns are not even supposed to be staying in the same house/living quarters, never mind in the same houses as laypeople.
This is not a negative thing to say or observe it is called constructive feedback and love. Buddha himself said that Buddhist laypeople will save the total corruption and degeneration of the community and of the teachings. Threatening people with vajra hell if they expose abuse is just silly if the teacher is not qualified and acting in unethical and harmful ways. As the 17th Karmapa recently explained if a teacher chooses an unqualified student, and that student breaches samaya, without the teacher pulling them back to a stable samaya, then they will both suffer the downfall from it.
Adele Tomlin, 19 March 2025.
Adele, I want to thank you, for all the work you do as a Dharma practitioner. I am a 73 year old male Dharma practitioner.
I was conscious during my transfer to this current body of flesh and blood. I didn’t suffer a loss of awareness in the process. Consequently, I continued my study and practice from the moment I “arrived” here. At the age of ten, I began reading to my parents from the Bardo Thodol. I arrived here a Shangpa Kagyu.
My root guru was Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, until his recent parinirvana.
Currently and for the last twenty years I have been interacting also with Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso, (Palyul Nyingma)….,
he has been very generous, learned and compassionate.
For the last 40+ years I have been very aware of the difficulties my dear women friends, practitioners, have encountered.
I’ve discussed it at length with Ani Tenzin Palmo, Ven Thubten Chodron, Venerable Sangye Khadro and Any Tenzin Wangmo, among others, because we’ve interacted for decades and discuss everything.
Aside from the difficulties women have faced and continue to face interacting with teachers, lamas, and Dharma Centers, and it’s easy to find examples, we also are well aware of the various manners in which “teachers”, “lamas”, “gurus” who are contemporaries of ours, are not always living the example laid out by the great adepts.
I had thoughts yesterday regarding how the global Sangha has gotten to this state.
I hear you loud and clear……., about lamas, monks, hanging out in motels, eating flesh, engaging in sexual things.
And about how nuns of forty years of practice and teaching globally, are seated at the back of the gonpa while male monks of two day’s ordination sit up front. Sexist, draconian, apparently.
I’m really talking with you now. This doesn’t need to be posted. I didn’t see the email that would allow me to talk with you individually.
Anyway….., yes, it’s not perfect within the ranks of any organized religion. People have afflictions. Afflictions obscure our primordial awareness, you’re aware of this, as am I, from experience.
Do you feel that many people living today are blinded by the robes and all the Tibetan appearing accessories? Do they see the superficial appearance and aren’t able to connect ? Do they see a certain visual image and lack the ability to look deeper ? Are they starstruck ?
The masters over the last 2500 years have left us many teachings on vinaya choosing a Lama, being good students, generating bodhicitta, emptiness. Still we flounder. Lamas, monks, nuns, students, all exhibit afflictions and still, all sentient beings possess perfected Buddha nature.
I dress as a westerner and I go places where people suffer and I try to point all to the path leading to the cessation of suffering. I honor my vows my precepts, to work towards enlightenment for the sake of, for the benefit of all sentient beings, not just humans.
Venerable Thubten Chodron was the first person to point out to her center in Seattle that, the Tibetan language is not more pure than any other language. My Lamas have pointed out too that we needn’t speak a certain language, thinking it’s more holy than Sanskrit or English or Chinese.
Enlightenment is not geographically dependent.
Saffron robes, a bell and dorje, a Mala, a shaved head, candles, tsampa and yak butter are cultural things. They are things that are Tibetan mostly and they show the face of Tibetan Buddhism resulting from Buddhism’s existence there over the centuries.
The ultimate truth doesn’t exist in any of those items, nor in only one language.
Enlightenment is not linguistically dependent.
I bow down at the feet of all teachers, including all the realized nuns and other dharma teachers who hold their vinaya purely. I was raised in a matriarchal home.
I respect all sentient beings, regardless of their current situation. I practice Karma Chagme’s Chenresig practice. This bardo is a pure realm, filled with billions of forms of Chenresig.
We live in degenerate times, (we’re told) and monks and nuns live in afflicted states as do practitioners. There is plenty of suffering and wrong thoughts causing our suffering. And, Buddha Nature is our constant companion.
I agree with your concerns. I respect all you do. I who know nothing………..
Thank you for your tireless efforts to benefit others. Thank you.
Bless all our mother beings.
In the dharma,
(Michael) Karma Thubten Trinley
(aka: Thubten Yeshi Sangpo)
Tashi delek !
samsara and Nirvana,,lately i’ve been
refering to it as “hide & seek” or hide and reveal.
the games people play.